Teaching Your Dog Tricks for Treats Giveaway #TrickorTreatDogs

Let’s learn dog tricks and give away over $850 in prizes! Yes, it’s tricks for treats time, dog lovers of the highest order! Welcome to the 2017 Tricks for Treats Giveaway with OVER $850 worth of fun and prizes!

Just for stopping by and checking learning about how to teach your dog some tricks we invite you to enter this year’s Trick or Treat Giveaway hop after you see Dexter work his trick magic. It’s well worth it because the prizes are wag-tastic. Your dog is already a winner, so let’s make him or her eligible for swag galore!

Cool beans: This goes on for 10 days of awesome dog tricks, fabulous dog treats, and OVER $850 worth of fun and prizes!

Disclosure: The Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop is sponsored by CleverPet, The Honest Kitchen, Planet Dog, and Health Extension. The opinions and ideas in this post are my own and are uninfluenced by any other person or business. The individual sponsors are responsible for their giveaway prizes including shipping.

Dog Parent Promise: Before Teaching Your Dog a New Trick

Promise yourself two things: You will have patience/never yell at or scold a dog AND you will try this is very short segments. Five minutes once or twice a day. I learned long ago from dog mom who has a trick dog that smaller bursts of trying something new is key AND you should always end on a positive note. Clap and reward your dog. You want the dog to feel good for doing this and not like a robot who must follow orders. If your dog does not want to do these tricks and/or is not feeling well or has health issues, please do not force a dog to do so. This is meant to be a fun, bonding experience to strengthen the relationship you have with your dog. There will be no shouting, yelling, spanking, frustration, or hissy fits on your behalf. Paw-mise? Okay good, let’s learn and win!

About Dexter

My dog is 9 years young, and our practice sessions have ensued over the years. The 15-minute practice sessions were more of a reinforcement, so if you are just starting out, be happy, be joyful, be engaged, and never scold a dog for not ‘getting it right.’ Not every dog is meant to be a trick dog, but every dog can form a loving bond with their human if properly trained, loved upon, and given respect.

My dog is official an AKC trick dog, achieving both the novice and intermediate titles! An AKC trick dog title helps instill confidence and so much more in dogs. I don’t plan to have my dog do television, commercials, or movies; my dog and I worked towards our AKC trick dog titles for other reasons.

Beg

I love this trick so much. You put the dog in a sit pose and remind him or her to stay. Place a treat into one hand and allow the dog to see it. You will start by placing your arms in front of the dog so he can smell the treat. You want the dog to know the treat is there. Reward when your dog realizes the treat is in your hand. Yes, give the treat up. For the first day or two, just do this.

On day 2 or 3, start holding the treat in front of your dog’s nose, but the treat needs to be seen and in between two fingers so you can hold it in front of the dog’s nose. You want the dog to be on his haunches as a goal. He will be on his haunches and wrap his paws around your arm while you say beg. In order to do this, work on it a few days at a time. By leaning forward a bit and pushing the treat toward Dexter’s nose, he started to associate the word ‘beg’ with what I wanted him to do. Winning!~

Which Hand?

You simply put a treat in both hands, sit in front of your dog and ask him or her ‘which hand?’ The dog will either tap your hand or nudge gently, as Dexter is doing here. You simply reward when they get the hand right. Put both hands in front of you. Obviously I am snapping the photo, and Dex is working his canine magic here: (this is one that most dogs can learn and it’s oh so cute, too)

Indoor Exercise Trick Sets

Combining a series of tasks into a few “sets” allows for dogs to keep fit all winter long and also for rainy days and ‘just because.’ It also keeps the dog’s mind limber because he or she has to think, listen, and react.

As part of our AKC trick title training, Dexter and I learned indoor exercise trick sets. Starting at the 4:30 position below, you can witness our exercise sets in action.

We combined a sit, stay, down, and spin into one set and then repeated it x3. In order to do this, you simply teach each command as listed. It also is a fun game to show your dog loving friends. Dexter loves applause, so this was a fun set to teach and witness.

Reminder

If your dog isn’t getting it or just simply is not interested, you do not want to end on a sour note. Have the dog do something that he or she is good at, no matter what it is, and then reward, clap, celebrate. The goal of learning anything new is to enhance the relationship between dog parent and dog.

The giveaway is closed and thanks to all who entered. The winners are:

$300 PetSmart gift card: Annamarie V

CleverPet Electronic Dog Puzzle: Ray K

The Honest Kitchen Prize Pack: Melody F

Planet Dog Prize Pack: Darcy K

Health Extension Prize Pack: Karley M

Enter to Win Prizes and Snag More Entries

And now some super fun for you and your dog! Prizes galore, as we shared above. Here is how to enter. Just go through the easy-to-enter form below and visit the different blogs listed for even more entries. Easy peasy, right?! If you visit each of the blogs, you can learn a new trick AND enter for more chances to win. Fun stuff! Give your pawsome dogs a scritch behind the ears from us and good luck!!!

yes, both girls know how to sit and beg. the youngest is very good with shaking hands and waving. i can get both girls to shake in unison. they know how to lay down, but not spin, my oldest did prance, sit, shake, lay down and rollover and some other tricks. i used treats, working with the treats and my hands. the oldest is very good at begging, she can actually stand and walk towards the treats. the younger girl has a little trouble balancing on 2 feet, to get them to shake, i used the treat, tapped their front leg and sometimes took their paw and shook it.

One of my dogs, Sprocket is an ace at learning new tricks (highly treat & praise motivated) – but my other dog, Ratchet is a lovable goof with the attention span of a paperclip (***SQUIRREL!***) – so he only knows basic commands (sit, down).

We’re still trying to get our puppy to learn this but he seems to have no interest in doing tricks for us. Our older dog however loves this little game. We take the treat and high it behind our back and put it in a hand. We then present him with both closed fists and he paws at a hand. Normally he gets it on every try. The best is when we trick him and the treat is hiding behind us, he’s catching on quick though once he gets over the initial confusion of both hands having no treats. He’ll walk around us and sniff it out. Such a good trick and great mental stimulation!

I have taught her to weave thru my legs, figure eights, give paw, jump thru hula hoop, jump over small jumps, go around, circle me, catch a ball, etc. We are working on some other things that she still doesn’t quite get, but hopefully she will figure these new tricks out too.

So true that it is amazing bonding and great mental and physical exercise. Kilo comes and begs me to do tricks as he LOVES treats and the attention and stimulation. We do the same ones as your video (Dex is too cute) and he offers up spin and lie down and anything else he thinks might earn a reward LOL. He does not like roll over as I think he was mistreated but we are working on it slowly. He can finally sit pretty and beg – he had to build up his core for 2 years on that one as his shape is tough to balance. I am going to try “which hand” tomorrow as I had forgotten that one. We do it with cups and puzzles too. Such fun!!!

He does not know the begging trick. He loves learning and when learning a new skill praise and play are usually his rewards instead of food treats. His play drive is very strong and it helps to keep training fun.

When we teach our dog a trick, what we’re going to do is look for small variation on what the end result will be. Whenever you are training any behavior, what you want to know is what the end behavior supposed to look like, and then you are just looking at what the dog does and breaking it down into small, achivalble steps. I ussually use a clicker to comunicate to him when he’s done correctly, what he’s getting a reward for. And slowly, I will shape him to the end result.

My younger pugs only know Sit & Fetch, trying to teach them Shake but it’s hard with two, they interefere with each other during lessons. Our senior rescue is 13, he didn’t know tricks when I adopted him two months ago, just happy he’s a good dog who gets around well still.

Search The Blog

POPULAR DOG POSTS

Follow Fidose of Reality

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

Fidose of Reality, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.